View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0008305ScribusFontspublic2009-07-28 16:59
Reporterjc Assigned Tojghali  
PrioritynormalSeverityfeatureReproducibilityalways
Status closedResolutionduplicate 
PlatformWindowsOSWindowsOS VersionXP
Product Version1.3.3.14svn 
Summary0008305: Ligature support
DescriptionI just installed Scribus.

Then I tested two fonts for ligatures: Calibri by Microsft and Suriyakumara that has a lot of ligatures. Suriyakumara is a font that I made for a language called Sinhala based on Latin codepoints. (A transliteration).

The ligatures did not show. If I use Adobe apps, they show the ligatures. The reason is that they rely on OpenType features and lookup tables built into fonts to display ligatures. The ligatures are stored in locations inside the Private Use Area of Unicode code space that only the font knows.

One of the bug reports I saw was about the inability to space the glyphs proportionately when ligatures are involved. This is a problem in Adobe too. However, it is great for my font because I want the ligatures to stay as they are when glyphs are spaced out.

That bug report gives a hint the way way you pick ligatures. They are Unicode assigned ligatures for well-known ligatures. (Following TrueType). That limits the use of fonts in Scribus. Supposing you want to use Zapfino, I guess it won't work in Scribus.
Steps To ReproduceTest Calibri for ligature display inside a text box (Use the words such as difficult, affluent).

Try this string alternately in Arial and Suriyakumara (attached):
mama geĆ°ara giyaa
Additional InformationI feel that since OpenType standard has been in use for some years, Scribus ought to support it. If it does, it would be a great boon for poor Indic people that Anglicize their languages, which is full of ambiguity.

If Scribus supports OpenType then a simple switch could be provided to turn on and off ligature formation. That would help with cases where people want to space out the glyphs after turning off ligature formation.

Thank you!
TagsNo tags attached.
Patch

Relationships

related to 0004645 assignedavox Fine tune kerning pairs 
child of 0001547 closedFahad Support for Indic Scripts 

Activities

2009-07-27 15:48

 

Suriyakumara.ttf (628,356 bytes)

plinnell

2009-07-27 15:53

viewer   ~0022241

A note to the reporter: You should see http://fontmatrix.net and also 1.3.3.x is stable. Development is in 1.3.5svn and 1.5.0svn

cbradney

2009-07-27 17:02

administrator   ~0022242

Duplicate of numerous bugs, closing.

jc

2009-07-28 16:42

reporter   ~0022252

This issue was placed under Indic and closed. That is a mistake.

Technically, this is a Latin fonts issue. The confusion arises because the glyphs have shapes of letters of an Indic language. It is easy to think that when glyphs look like Indic that the font is created on unicode codepoints of an Indic Script. This font is under the Latin Script as defined in the OpenType standard because it uses the 'default' language under Latin Script by using Latin-1 character set and naming the language as Default.

Please refer to the following page on ligatures:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/TTOCHAP1.htm

I am requesting that Scribus allows the 'Liga' (standard ligatures) feature of OpenType.
The part that applies to Latin Script in the OpenType standard is the following:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/OpenType%20Dev/standard/intro.mspx
The organization of the Layout Tags of an OpenType font are here:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/ttoreg.htm

Thank you!

JC

jghali

2009-07-28 16:59

administrator   ~0022253

That does not change the fact that this issue is a duplicate of already existing bugs related to ligatures and OpenType support

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2009-07-27 15:48 jc New Issue
2009-07-27 15:48 jc File Added: Suriyakumara.ttf
2009-07-27 15:52 plinnell Relationship added related to 0004645
2009-07-27 15:53 plinnell Note Added: 0022241
2009-07-27 15:54 plinnell Relationship added child of 0001547
2009-07-27 15:55 plinnell Status new => acknowledged
2009-07-27 17:02 cbradney Note Added: 0022242
2009-07-27 17:02 cbradney Status acknowledged => closed
2009-07-27 17:02 cbradney Resolution open => duplicate
2009-07-28 16:42 jc Note Added: 0022252
2009-07-28 16:42 jc Status closed => feedback
2009-07-28 16:42 jc Resolution duplicate => reopened
2009-07-28 16:59 jghali Note Added: 0022253
2009-07-28 16:59 jghali Status feedback => resolved
2009-07-28 16:59 jghali Resolution reopened => duplicate
2009-07-28 16:59 jghali Assigned To => jghali
2009-07-28 16:59 jghali Status resolved => closed